Libythea labdaca
| African snout butterfly | |
|---|---|
 | |
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| L. l. labdaca, Kakamega Forest, Kenya | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Libythea |
| Species: | L. labdaca |
| Binomial name | |
| Libythea labdaca Westwood, 1851 | |
Libythea labdaca, the African snout butterfly, is a member of the butterfly subfamily Libytheinae found in western and central Africa.
It forms vast migratory swarms (over 1 billion butterflies were estimated in Ghana). The butterflies move south in the spring and north in the autumn.
The larvae feed on Celtis species (including C. kraussiana and C. sayauxii).
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Subspecies
- Libythea labdaca labdaca (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Bioko, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, western Kenya, western Tanzania)
- Libythea labdaca laius Trimen, 1879 (Ethiopia, eastern Kenya, eastern and northern Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, South Africa, Eswatini)
Torben Larsen developed a species numbering system for his 2005 publication Butterflies of West Africa. The nominate subspecies is #646. The 'Larsen' numbers have since been used with permission in A Sharp Eye on Butterflies of Ghana.
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Libythea labdaca.
Wikispecies has information related to Libythea labdaca.
- ↑ Afrotropical Butterflies: Nymphalidae - Subfamily Libytheinae
- ↑ Kawahara, A.Y. (2013). "Systematic revision and review of the extant and fossil snout butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Libytheinae)". Zootaxa. 3631 (1): 001–074. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3631.1.1. PMID 25325094.
- ↑ Larsen, Torben B. (2005). Butterflies of West Africa. Stenstrup, Denmark: Apollo Books. ISBN 978-87-88757-43-9.
- ↑ Sharp, Charles J.; Sáfián, Sz. (2026). A Sharp Eye on Butterflies of Ghana. Oxford: Sharp Eye Publications and Hungarian Natural Heritage Trust. p. 74/75. ISBN 978-615-02-5911-6.
Sources
- Kawahara, A. Y. 2006. Biology of the snout butterflies (Nymphalidae, Libytheinae), Part 1: Libythea Fabricius. Transactions of the Lepidopterological Society of Japan 57:13-33.
- Kawahara, A.Y., 2013: Systematic revision and review of the extant and fossil snout butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Libytheinae). Zootaxa 3631 (1): 1-74. preview: .
External links
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